Systems and methods for providing a visualizable results list

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for displaying a visualizable results list in response to an electronic search request are disclosed. A method includes accessing metadata for each of a plurality of search results that result from a search query, annotating one or more locations in each search result with first and second indicators for each of one or more grouped search terms in first and second units based on the metadata, and displaying a visualizable results list that includes the plurality of search results and a corresponding hit pattern for each search result. The hit pattern includes the first indicator and the second indicator.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/092,999. filed Apr. 20, 2016 and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A VISUALIZABLE RESULTS LIST,” whichis incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Field

The present specification generally relates to providing search resultsand, more particularly, to systems and methods that provide searchresults with visuals to assist a user in determining which resultsclosely match the user's desired needs.

Technical Background

Currently, researchers, upon conducting a search in a particulardatabase, are presented with search results that may be ranked accordingto certain criteria, such as a date, number of hits, a determinedrelevance, a type of result, and/or the like. However, the determinedranking of results may not correspond to the researcher's desiredranking methodology. In addition, the results may not provide theresearcher with a visualizable means of reordering the ranking accordingto the researcher's desired ranking methodology. Even more, the resultsdo not provide the user with sufficient pertinent information from eachhit in the results list such that the user can determine whether the hitis relevant.

Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods that provide searchresults with a high malleability and a visualizable means of reorderingand re-ranking the results that correspond to a particular researcher'sdesired ranking methodology and provide the user with sufficientpertinent information from each hit in the results list such that theuser can decide whether a hit is relevant to his or her search.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method of displaying a visualizable results list inresponse to an electronic search request includes accessing, by aprocessing device, metadata for each of a plurality of search resultsthat result from a search query, annotating, by the processing device,one or more locations in each search result with a first indicator foreach of one or more grouped search terms in the search query and asecond indicator for each of one or more grouped search terms in asecond unit in the search query based on the metadata, and displaying,by the processing device, a visualizable results list including theplurality of search results and a corresponding hit pattern for eachsearch result. The hit pattern includes the first indicator and thesecond indicator.

In another embodiment, a method of displaying a visualizable resultslist in response to a search request includes receiving, by a processingdevice, a search query including a plurality of search terms, grouping,by the processing device, the plurality of search terms into a pluralityof units, where each of the plurality of units includes a related one ormore of the plurality of search terms, accessing, by the processingdevice, metadata for each document in a plurality of search results thatcorresponds to the search query, annotating, by the processing device,one or more locations in each document with a first indicator for eachof the one or more search terms in a first unit of the plurality ofunits and a second indicator for each of the one or more search terms ina second unit of the plurality of units based on the metadata, anddisplaying, by the processing device, a visualizable results list. Thevisualizable results list includes the plurality of search results and acorresponding hit pattern for each document in the plurality of searchresults. The hit pattern includes one or more sections of the document,a first one or more hashes corresponding to each first indicator, and asecond one or more hashes corresponding to each second indicator. Thefirst one or more hashes and the second one or more hashes positionedwithin the hit pattern in one or more locations that correspond to theone or more locations of the search terms in the document.

In another embodiment, a system for displaying a visualizable resultslist includes a processing device and a non-transitory,processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processingdevice. The non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium includesone or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause theprocessing device to receive a search query that includes a plurality ofsearch terms and group the plurality of search terms into a plurality ofunits. Each of the plurality of units includes a related one or more ofthe plurality of search terms. The non-transitory, processor-readablestorage medium further includes one or more programming instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing device to access metadata foreach document in a plurality of search results that corresponds to thesearch query, annotate one or more locations in each document with afirst indicator for each of the one or more search terms in a first unitof the plurality of units and a second indicator for each of the one ormore search terms in a second unit of the plurality of units based onthe metadata, and display a visualizable results list. The visualizableresults list includes the plurality of search results and acorresponding hit pattern for each document in the plurality of searchresults. The hit pattern includes one or more sections of the document,a first one or more hashes corresponding to each first indicator, and asecond one or more hashes corresponding to each second indicator. Thefirst one or more hashes and the second one or more hashes positionedwithin the hit pattern in one or more locations that correspond to theone or more locations of the search terms in the document.

These and additional features provided by the embodiments describedherein will be more fully understood in view of the following detaileddescription, in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative and exemplaryin nature and not intended to limit the subject matter defined by theclaims. The following detailed description of the illustrativeembodiments can be understood when read in conjunction with thefollowing drawings, wherein like structure is indicated with likereference numerals and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of an illustrative computing network fora system for providing a visualizable results list according to one ormore embodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 2 is a schematic depiction of the server computing device from FIG.1, further illustrating hardware and software that may be used inproviding a visualizable results list according to one or moreembodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative overview of generatingand rendering a visualizable results display according to one or moreembodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 4 depicts a screen shot of an illustrative user interface forsearching according to one or more embodiments shown and describedherein;

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative method of groupingterms into units according to one or more embodiments shown anddescribed herein;

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative method of selecting topscoring units according to one or more embodiments shown and describedherein;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative table of unit scores according to one ormore embodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative method of displayingresults annotated with units according to one or more embodiments shownand described herein;

FIG. 9 depicts a screen shot of an illustrative user interfacedisplaying search results annotated with units according to one or moreembodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 10 depicts a detailed screen shot of illustrative search resultsaccording to one or more embodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 11 depicts a screen shot of an illustrative full document viewaccording to one or more embodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 12 depicts a screen shot of an alternative illustrative userinterface displaying search results annotated with units according toone or more embodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 13 depicts a screen shot of the alternative user interface of FIG.12 with reordered search results according to one or more embodimentsshown and described herein;

FIG. 14 depicts a screen shot of the alternative user interface of FIG.12 with a pop-up display according to one or more embodiments shown anddescribed herein;

FIG. 15 depicts a detailed screen shot of illustrative search results inthe alternative user interface of FIG. 12 according to one or moreembodiments shown and described herein;

FIG. 16 depicts a screen shot of the alternative user interface of FIG.12 with a plurality of expanded bars according to one or moreembodiments shown and described herein; and

FIG. 17 depicts a screen shot of the alternative user interface of FIG.12 with a prototype variable controller pop up box according to one ormore embodiments shown and described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring generally to the figures, embodiments described herein aredirected to systems and methods for providing a visualizable list ofsearch results to a user that are based on the user's search query.Particularly, the systems and methods described herein provide acollection of documents returned from a query along with visualrepresentations that depict “hit patterns” at an aggregated list leveland/or at a document level. The systems and methods described hereinfurther provide one or more interactive features that enable the user toalternatively rank the results list based on one or more documentattributes. In addition, the systems and methods described hereinprovide pertinent information from each document that is retrieved bythe user as a result of the search such that the user is able to moreeasily determine whether the document is germane to the information theuser seeks to obtain.

As will be described in greater detail herein, a researcher using thesystems and methods described herein may enter a search phrase (eitherBoolean or non-Boolean) and receive a list of results that correspond tothe search phrase, which may be the result of the use of one or moretokens from the search phrase. For each result in the list of results,the systems and methods described herein may provide a link to thedocument and a hit pattern that provides additional informationregarding the location of search terms within the document, the locationof particular groupings of search terms within the document, documentsections, and/or the like. In addition, in response to one or moreinputs, the systems and methods described herein may provide excerpts ofthe document to the researcher, where the excerpts relate to the hitpattern. Such excerpts may be provided without the need for the user toaccess each document individually. As such, the researcher can quicklydetermine whether the document is germane to his/her search withouthaving to spend excessive time reading through the remainder of thedocument.

As will be apparent from the present disclosure, the systems and methodsdescribed herein may be particularly configured to increase aresearcher's productivity when conducting a search by providing amalleable user interface that is particularly configured to accuratelyprovide pertinent information the researcher needs to make an informeddecision regarding search results and to determine whether particulardocuments discovered within the results are relevant. That is, theresults are displayed in a manner that is intuitive to the user andprovides the user with an ability to alter the display as necessary toobtain the needed information, unlike previous means of displayingresults, which merely allowed for re-sorting and/or filtering of aresults list based on particular preset conditions. In addition, thesystems and methods described herein improve the functioning of acomputing device by customizing the way the computing device providessearch results for a particular user without requiring additionalcomputing power. As such, the computing device becomes particularlycustomized for each of a plurality of users, all at the same time,without requiring additional computing power to do so.

While the systems and methods described herein may refer to specificexamples relating to legal research, including case law, statute, and/orlegal treatise research, it should be understood that such examples aremerely illustrative and the present disclosure is not limited to suchinstances. Rather, the systems and methods described herein may beimplemented in any field of research, regardless of whether such fieldsare particularly described herein. For example, the systems and methodsmay be implemented within the realm of academic research, scientificresearch, general Internet-based research, and/or the like.

As used herein, the term “researcher” refers generally to any user thatuses the systems and methods described herein to conduct research. Assuch, the terms “researcher” and “user” may be used interchangeablyherein. Examples of researchers may include, but are not limited to,legal researchers, academic researchers, scientific researchers, generalresearchers, and/or the like.

As used herein, a “document” generally refers to a collection of textwithin a search result. The document may correspond to an electronicdocument or a physical document, but may be displayed to a user as textwithin a user interface (such as a web browser screen or the like). Assuch, a document is generally a single search result within a collectionof search results, as such terms are used herein. An illustrativedocument may contain, for example, the text of a court opinion asreported by a particular reporter.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative computingnetwork that depicts components for a system for providing a searchinterface and a visualizable results list according to embodiments shownand described herein. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a computer network 10may include a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, a localarea network (LAN), a mobile communications network, a public servicetelephone network (PSTN), a personal area network (PAN), a metropolitanarea network (MAN), a virtual private network (VPN), and/or anothernetwork. The computer network 10 may generally be configured toelectronically connect one or more computing devices and/or componentsthereof. Illustrative computing devices may include, but are not limitedto, a user computing device 12 a, a server computing device 12 b, and anadministrator computing device 12 c.

The user computing device 12 a may generally be used as an interfacebetween the user (e.g., the researcher) and the other componentsconnected to the computer network 10. Thus, the user computing device 12a may be used to perform one or more user-facing functions, such asreceiving one or more inputs from a user or providing information to theuser, as described in greater detail herein. Accordingly, the usercomputing device 12 a may include at least a display and/or inputhardware, as described in greater detail herein. Additionally, includedin FIG. 1 is the administrator computing device 12 c. In the event thatthe server computing device 12 b requires oversight, updating, orcorrection, the administrator computing device 12 c may be configured toprovide the desired oversight, updating, and/or correction. Theadministrator computing device 12 c may also be used to input additionaldata into the corpus stored on the server computing device 12 b.

The server computing device 12 b may receive data from one or moresources, store data, index data, search data, and/or provide data to theuser computing device 12 a in the form of search results, visualrepresentations such as hit patterns, documents, excerpts from one ormore documents, and/or the like.

It should be understood that while the user computing device 12 a andthe administrator computing device 12 c are depicted as personalcomputers and the server computing device 12 b is depicted as a server,these are nonlimiting examples. More specifically, in some embodiments,any type of computing device (e.g., mobile computing device, personalcomputer, server, etc.) may be used for any of these components.Additionally, while each of these computing devices is illustrated inFIG. 1 as a single piece of hardware, this is also merely an example.More specifically, each of the user computing device 12 a, servercomputing device 12 b, and administrator computing device 12 c mayrepresent a plurality of computers, servers, databases, components,and/or the like.

FIG. 2 depicts the server computing device 12 b, from FIG. 1, furtherillustrating a system for receiving data from one or more sources,storing data, indexing data, searching data, and/or providing data. Inaddition, the server computing device 12 b may include a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium for searching and providing data embodied ashardware, software, and/or firmware, according to embodiments shown anddescribed herein. While in some embodiments the server computing device12 b may be configured as a general purpose computer with the requisitehardware, software, and/or firmware, in some embodiments, the servercomputing device 12 b may also be configured as a special purposecomputer designed specifically for performing the functionalitydescribed herein.

As also illustrated in FIG. 2, the server computing device 12 b mayinclude a processor 30, input/output hardware 32, network interfacehardware 34, a data storage component 36 (which may store analytic data38 a, document corpus data 38 b, and other data 38 c), and anon-transitory memory component 40. The memory component 40 may beconfigured as volatile and/or nonvolatile computer readable medium and,as such, may include random access memory (including SRAM, DRAM, and/orother types of random access memory), flash memory, registers, compactdiscs (CD), digital versatile discs (DVD), and/or other types of storagecomponents. Additionally, the memory component 40 may be configured tostore various processing logic, such as operating logic 42, search logic44, list display logic 46, and/or detailed display logic 48 (each ofwhich may be embodied as a computer program, firmware, or hardware, asan example). A local interface 50 is also included in FIG. 2 and may beimplemented as a bus or other interface to facilitate communicationamong the components of the server computing device 12 b.

The processor 30 may include any processing component configured toreceive and execute instructions (such as from the data storagecomponent 36 and/or memory component 40). The input/output hardware 32may include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, camera, microphone,speaker, touch-screen, and/or other device for receiving, sending,and/or presenting data. The network interface hardware 34 may includeany wired or wireless networking hardware, such as a modem, LAN port,wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) card, WiMax card, mobile communicationshardware, and/or other hardware for communicating with other networksand/or devices.

It should be understood that the data storage component 36 may residelocal to and/or remote from the server computing device 12 b and may beconfigured to store one or more pieces of data and selectively provideaccess to the one or more pieces of data. As illustrated in FIG. 2, thedata storage component 36 may store analytic data 38 a, document corpusdata 38 b, and/or other data 38 c, as described in greater detailherein.

Included in the memory component 40 are the operating logic 42, thesearch logic 44, the list display logic 46, and/or the detailed displaylogic 48. The operating logic 42 may include an operating system and/orother software for managing components of the server computing device 12b. The search logic 44 may be configured to generate search queries froma user input within the graphical user interface. The list display logic46 may generate and display a list of search hits or documents uncoveredfrom the search logic 44, as well as visual representations for usermanipulation, as described in detail below. The detailed display logic48 may be configured to generate and display additional detailsregarding a particular element of the list generated and displayed bythe list display logic 46, including a document, a hit pattern, and/or ahit list within a document, as described in detail below.

It should be understood that the components illustrated in FIG. 2 aremerely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of thisdisclosure. More specifically, while the components in FIG. 2 areillustrated as residing within the server computing device 12 b, this isa nonlimiting example. In some embodiments, one or more of thecomponents may reside external to the server computing device 12 b.Similarly, while FIG. 2 is directed to the server computing device 12 b,other components such as the user computing device 12 a and theadministrator computing device 12 c may include similar hardware,software, and/or firmware.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative method of providing avisualizable results list. At step 300, a query is received. The queryis generally one or more search terms (e.g., words) inputted by a user.More particularly, the user may desire to discover one or more searchresults (e.g., documents or the like) that pertain to a particularsubject, a particular set of circumstances, and/or the like. As such,the user inputs the query as a set of one or more search terms that theuser believes will result in the search and retrieval of the searchresults desired by the user. The query may be in any query format nowknown or later developed, such as, for example, a natural languagequery, a Boolean query, or the like. A natural language query is arequest for data that is set forth in a natural language, such asEnglish, Spanish, French, German, or the like. As such, a user may entera natural language query by inputting any combination of words orphrases. In some embodiments, a user may input a natural language queryin the form of a question, i.e., the user may desire to retrieve searchresults that would answer the question that is inputted. A Boolean queryis a request for data that is set forth as one or more terms separatedby specific syntax that indicates the relationship between the terms.Illustrative syntax may include the words “AND” and “OR”.

To receive the query, a system (or component thereof, such as acomputing device) may provide a search field in a user interface, wherethe query can be inputted into the search field by a user via a userinterface device. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the user computingdevice may provide the search field as a user-modifiable text box 405within a user interface 400 that is displayed to the user on a displaydevice or the like. A user can enter text into the text box 405 via oneor more user input devices, such as the input/output hardware 32 (FIG.2) described herein. A nonlimiting example of a query entered into thetext box 405 may be the terms “sports”, “antitrust”, and “exemption”.Such a query may indicate, for example, that the user desires toretrieve search results regarding antitrust exemptions that are relatedto sports.

In some embodiments, the computing device may also provide additionaluser-selectable menu items 410 via the user interface 400 in addition tothe user-modifiable text box 405 to further tailor the user's searchquery. Such user-selectable menu items 410 may, for example, allow theuser to specify a particular location to search for the query terms,such as in all available resources, only within particular databasesand/or document categories, within particular sections of documents,and/or the like. As particularly shown in FIG. 4, the user-selectablemenu items 410 may be presented as a drop-down box that lists thevarious options for a user to select. Once the user has entered the textinto the text box 405 and selected the user-selectable menu items 410,the user may trigger the search query to be submitted. Such a triggermay be, for example, when a user strikes the “enter” button on akeyboard, selects a search button 415 presented via the user interface400, and/or the like.

It should be understood that the user interface 400 presented in FIG. 4is merely an illustrative example of one possible means of receiving aquery. As such, other means of receiving a query are contemplated andpossible without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Forexample, a query may be input via a speech input and/or the like.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the system may execute a search based on thequery, as shown at step 305. Executing the search may be completed atany time after the search query is received, and may occur concurrentlywith one or more of the other processes described herein with respect toFIG. 3. Execution of the search may be completed via any searchingmethod now known or later developed, and is not limited by thisdisclosure.

At step 310, the system may determine whether the received query is aBoolean query. Such a determination may be completed by analyzing thequery and determining whether the query contains the specific syntaxthat is generally recognized as Boolean syntax. As previously describedherein, such syntax includes, but is not limited to, words such as “AND”and “OR”. In some embodiments, the query may only be recognized asBoolean if the specific syntax is in a particular format (e.g., allcaps, certain connectors, Boolean syntax, or the like).

If the determination indicates that the query is Boolean, the variouswords of the query may be grouped based on the structure of the query.More specifically, words or phrases that are separated by an “OR” termmay be recognized as being alternative search terms that can be groupedtogether as a single element for the purposes of displaying searchresults. That is, if a user inputs the following Boolean phrase“basketball OR football”, the system may search for documents containingeither word (as is typical for Boolean queries); however, for thepurposes of displaying the results, the system may group the words“basketball” and “football” together as if they were the same term forthe purpose of providing visualizable search results, the same unitassociated with a particular meaning, and/or interchangeable terms, asdescribed in greater detail herein.

If the determination is that the query is not Boolean, the system mayskip step 315 and proceed directly to step 320. In addition, once step315 is completed for Boolean queries, the system may proceed to step320. At step 320, the search terms (e.g., words and phrases) are groupedbased on a recognition that certain terms are synonymous orinterchangeable for the purposes of displaying the results. That is,similar to that as described with respect to step 315, the groupings areonly completed for the purposes of displaying the results, and do notaffect the searching. As such, the search is carried out in a typicalfashion (i.e., the search is conducted by any means of searching nowknown or later developed).

The terms of the query may be grouped at step 320 by accessing one ormore databases to determine groupings. Such databases include, but arenot limited to, a wildcard thesaurus database 325, a synonym database330, and a phrases database 335. A wildcard thesaurus database 325 is adatabase that contains certain wildcard terms that are recognized asbeing synonyms for the purposes of grouping search results as describedherein. For example, if a query includes the term “sport”, a wildcardthesaurus database 325 may include terms that have a wildcard relationto the terms “sport*”, “sport!”, “!sport”, “*sport”, or the like,including, but not limited to, “sports”, “sporting”, “sportsmanship”,“sporty”, “sportscast”, “sportswear”, “multisport”, “transport”,“passport”, and the like. A synonym database 330 is a database thatcontains recognized synonyms of words, including words that may not beexact synonyms, but convey a similar meaning as the term. For example, asynonym database 330 may include, for the term “sport”, exact synonymssuch as “athletics”, “game”, “recreation”, “pastime”, or the like, aswell as other words that convey a similar meaning, such as “football”,“basketball”, “tennis”, “hockey”, “baseball”, and the like. A phrasesdatabase 335 is a database that contains recognized phrases, even whensuch phrases are not bound by common phrase indicators (such as, forexample, quotation marks). For example, certain phrases in the phrasedatabase may allow for recognition that when the words “basketball” and“game” appear consecutively in a query, they are treated as the phrase“basketball game” even though the words are not entered with phraseindicators. In some embodiments, the phrases database 335 may bespecific to a particular field in which the query is being searched. Forexample, if the searching is related to legal databases (e.g., a searchengine that searches case law, statutes, legal treatises, and/or thelike), the phrases database 335 may be specific to particular legalterms, such as “fee simple”, “beyond a reasonable doubt”, or the like.Such terms may or may not be recognized as phrases outside the legalcontext. Additional detail regarding grouping of the query terms for thepurposes of displaying the results is shown in FIG. 5.

At step 500, a term may be determined from the query. The term may be aword, a phrase, and/or the like. If the query is a Boolean query, eachterm may be separated by one of the syntax terms/words. Thus, forexample, if the Boolean query is “antitrust exemptions AND sports ORbasketball OR football”, a determination may be that the terms includethe phrase “antitrust exemptions” and each of the words “sports”,“basketball”, and “football”. If the query is a natural language query,each word of the query may initially be deemed a term, unless certainpunctuation is present in the query. Thus, if the natural language queryis “what “antitrust exemptions” exist in sports, particularly footballand basketball?”, each word in the query would be considered a termexcept for “antitrust exemptions” because it is bounded betweenquotation marks.

At step 505, a determined term is selected for the purposes of grouping.For example, if the determination of the terms from the query is“antitrust exemptions” and “sports”, then either “antitrust exemptions”or “sports” may be selected. As will be described in greater detailherein, all terms in the query will eventually be selected for thepurposes of grouping, so selecting a term at step 505 is not limited toa particular selection methodology. For example, a term may be selectedbecause it appears first in the query or because it is the next term inthe query (when the previous term has already been selected).

At step 510, a determination may be made as to whether the term is anoise word or a noise phrase. Noise words/phrases are generallywords/phrases that are non-key words/phrases that, if searched, wouldlikely not narrow the search results because of their commonality. Assuch, noise words and noise phrases are terms and phrases that aregenerally unhelpful in identifying the subject matter of a document.Nonlimiting examples of noise words include “a”, “the”, “an”, “of”,“to”, “on”, and the like. If the term is a noise word or noise phrase,it may be discarded at step 515 and the process may return to step 505.Noise words and noise phrases are generally discarded because a userlikely will not be interested in noise words/phrases when visualizingthe search results, as described in greater detail herein.

If the term is not a noise word or noise phrase, the process may proceedto step 520. At step 520, one or more databases may be searched for theterm. As previously described above, the databases may generally bedatabases that are specific to determining a grouping of like terms forthe purposes of displaying the search results. That is, the databasesare particular databases that are used to determine query grouping,including wildcard thesaurus databases, synonym databases, and phrasedatabases.

At step 525, a determination is made as to whether a match for the termis found in one or more of the databases. If no match is found, the termis returned as an ungrouped term at step 530. That is, the term is notgrouped together with other terms for the purposes of displaying thesearch results as described herein. Rather, the term alone may beindicated as being different from other units, as described in greaterdetail herein.

If a match is found, the list of synonyms for the term is parsed at step535 and compared with the remaining terms at step 540 to determinewhether a match exists. For example, if the query includes the terms“sports”, “basketball”, and “football” and a match for the term “sports”is found in the database, the synonyms for the term “sports” in thatdatabase may be parsed to determine whether any of the synonyms matchthe terms “basketball” and “football”. If, based on a determination atstep 545 that matches are not found, the term is returned as ungroupedat step 530.

If, based on the determination at step 545 that matches are foundbetween the remaining terms in the query and the synonym list, the termsare grouped together at step 550. That is, when the search results aredisplayed, the grouped terms will appear together as similarly coloredindicators or the like, as described herein. However, the terms willstill be applied separately for the purposes of conducting the search,as described herein. In a nonlimiting example, if the terms “football”and “basketball” both appear in the synonym list for the term “sports”,all three terms will be grouped together such that the search resultsonly display the grouping of those three terms with a single coloredindicator rather than each of the three terms individually as separatelycolored indicators.

At step 555, a determination may be made as to whether additional termsremain in the query that either have not been grouped together orreturned as ungrouped. If additional terms remain, the process mayreturn to step 505. If no additional terms remain, the list(s) ofgrouped and ungrouped terms may be provided at step 560. Providing thelist(s) may generally include storing the lists in memory for futureaccess, as will be described in greater detail herein.

Referring again to FIG. 3, once the terms have been grouped ordetermined to be ungrouped, a determination may be made at step 340 asto whether the query contains a number of units that is above or below aparticular threshold. A unit refers to a group of terms or a single termif the term is ungrouped. Such a determination may be desirable becausean excessive amount of units (e.g., an amount above the thresholdnumber) may result in a results list that appears to be cluttered (i.e.,too many differently colored indicators) and may be difficult for a userto find certain results that are germane to the user's search goals.While step 340 refers to a threshold of 5 units, such a number is merelyillustrative and the present disclosure is not limited to such. That is,the threshold may be any number of units without departing from thescope of the present disclosure. An illustrative threshold may be, forexample, 2 units, 3 units, 4 units, 5 units, 6 units, or 7 units.

If the query has a number of units that is greater than the threshold,the query may be analyzed and unit reduction scores may be determined atstep 360. As used herein, a unit reduction score is a score assigned toeach unit based on one or more criteria. In some embodiments, unitshaving a higher unit reduction score are more likely to be units thatare displayed for the purposes of visualizing search results than unitswith a lower unit reduction score.

The unit reduction score for each unit may be determined by accessingone or more databases and assigning a score based on informationcontained in the database. Illustrative databases include, but are notlimited to, a user analytics database 365, a results metadata database370, a personal user history database 375, a topic taxonomy database380, a document corpus database 385, and a similar user history database390.

Referring also to FIG. 6, additional detail regarding the determinationof the reduction score is depicted. At step 605, a unit is selected forscoring and a determination is made as to whether the unit is one thatis rare or one that is commonly used by the user at step 610. That is,various search histories, such as the user's search history, may bereviewed to determine if the unit is a term or group of terms that hasbeen used in the past. The search history may be reviewed by accessingone or more databases, such as, for example, the user analytics database365 and/or the personal user history database 375 and comparing databaseentries with one or more terms from the unit. If the unit is notcommonly used (i.e., it is a rare term), then one or more points areassigned to the unit at step 615. The number of points that are assignedis not limited by this disclosure, and may be based upon any scoringmethodology. In a nonlimiting example, 1 point may be assigned if theunit (or a search term therefrom) is rare. In another nonlimitingexample, points may be assigned according to a scale of how frequentlythe unit (or a search term therefrom) has been used in the past suchthat more frequently used units receive fewer points than lessfrequently used units. FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative table of pointsthat are assigned based on how often particular term combinations areused. In some embodiments, if the unit is commonly used by the user,points may not be assigned.

Referring again to FIGS. 3 and 6, at step 620, a determination is madeas to whether the unit is closely associated with terms having semanticsimilarities. For example, if a unit includes the term “adversepossession” and metadata retrieved from the search results indicate thata large proportion of the search results relate to real estate, which issemantically similar to “adverse possession” and the term “adversepossession” is used in close proximity with other real estate terms(e.g., in the same sentence, the same phrase, the same paragraph, or thelike), a determination may be made that the term has a high valuebecause of its close topical (e.g., spatial) proximity to semanticallysimilar terms. Such a determination may be made by accessing one or moredatabases such as, for example, the results metadata database 370, thetopic taxonomy database 380, and/or the document corpus database 385.Higher value terms (e.g., terms in close proximity to semanticallysimilar terms) may be assigned one or more points may be assigned to theunit at step 625. Similar to that as described above, the number ofpoints that are assigned is not limited by this disclosure and may bebased upon any scoring methodology. If the unit is not in closeproximity to semantically similar terms, points may not be assigned.

In some embodiments, particularly embodiments where the search is alegal related search (e.g., a statute search, a case law search, a legaltreatise search, and/or the like), a determination may be made as towhether the unit is related to a particular legal topic. For example, aunit that contains the term “adverse possession” may be recognized asbeing related to real estate law rather than another legal topic. Such adetermination may be made, for example, by searching one or moredatabases, such as the topic taxonomy database 380 and/or the documentcorpus database 385 and comparing entries in the database with one ormore terms from the unit. If the unit is related to a particular legaltopic, one or more points may be assigned to the unit at step 635.Similar to that as described above, the number of points that areassigned is not limited by this disclosure and may be based upon anyscoring methodology. If the unit is not related to a particular legaltopic, points may not be assigned.

At step 640, a determination is made as to whether the unit is relatedto a document corpus. For example, if the unit contains the terms“basketball” and “football”, it may be recognized as being related to asports document corpus. Such a determination may be made, for example,by searching one or more databases, such as the topic taxonomy database380 and/or the document corpus database 385 and comparing entries in thedatabase with one or more terms from the unit. In some embodiments,terms from the topic taxonomy database 380 and/or the document corpusdatabase 385 may be weighted according to what extent they haveco-occurred with other query terms in close proximity within otherdocuments. If the unit is related to a document corpus, one or morepoints may be assigned to the unit at step 645. Similar to that asdescribed above, the number of points that are assigned is not limitedby this disclosure and may be based upon any scoring methodology. If theunit is not related to a document corpus, points may not be assigned.

At step 650, a determination is made as to whether the unit is relatedto units that have been searched by other users. For example, ifmultiple users have searched for the terms “basketball”, “football”, and“sports”, it may be determined that such a unit that contains one ormore of these terms is related to the other user's searched units. Sucha determination may be made, for example, by searching one or moredatabases, such as the similar user history database 390 and comparingentries in the database with one or more terms from the unit. If theunit is related to similar users' searches, one or more points may beassigned to the unit at step 655. However, such a determination is notlimited by this disclosure, and other analyses using other assets may beused without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Similarto that as described above, the number of points that are assigned isnot limited by this disclosure and may be based upon any scoringmethodology. If the unit is not related to similar users' searches,points may not be assigned.

At step 660, the number of points assigned to the unit may be talliedand logged in a file. Thereafter, a determination may be made as towhether additional units are to be assigned points in step 665. Ifadditional units are to be assigned points, the process may repeat atstep 605 until all units have been assigned points.

If no additional units exist, a document containing the tally of thenumber of points assigned to each unit may be reordered and rankedaccording to their scores at step 670. For example, units having agreater amount of points may be ranked ahead of units having a loweramount of points. However, other methods of tallying may be completedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example,the tally may be according to a particular formula rather than a sum ofthe points. At step 675, the top scoring units up to the thresholdamount may be selected as the units to be displayed. For example, if thethreshold is 5 units, the top 5 units may be selected. Similarly, if thethreshold is 3 units, the top 3 units may be selected.

Returning to FIG. 3, at step 395, the top scoring units are kept. Itshould generally be understood that step 395 may be an equivalent ofstep 675 of FIG. 6. While step 395 indicates the top 5 scoring units, itshould be understood that the threshold may be greater than or less than5 units, as previously described herein. Thus, if the threshold is 3,only 3 of the top scoring units may be kept at step 395.

Once the number of units is at or less than the threshold, the metadataof each document in the search results may be retrieved at step 345 byaccessing a results metadata database 355. The results metadata database355 is generally a database containing metadata for each of thedocuments that appears in the search results. That is, the search thatis conducted concurrently with the steps described herein (e.g., at step305) returns one or more results. In some embodiments, the resultsmetadata database 355 may be the same results metadata database 370previously described herein. Metadata for each of the results is storedin the results metadata database 355. FIG. 8 provides additional detailwith respect to retrieving metadata.

At step 805, a unit is selected and at step 810, the results metadatadatabase is accessed. The results metadata database may be accessed viaan interface, as described herein. The metadata of the search results issearched at step 815 to determine one or more locations of each termfrom the unit within each document in the search results at step 820.Once the one or more locations have been determined, each document inthe search results may be annotated to indicate the location(s) at step825. The process may repeat at step 805 for each of the units, asindicated by the determination of whether additional units exist at step830. As such, each unit will be annotated in the document by a uniqueannotation (e.g., a first indicator, a second indicator, etc.) such thatthe units are distinguishable from one another based on the annotations.Once all of the units have been used to search the results metadata andannotate the results list, the results may be displayed with theannotations in step 835. Referring again to FIG. 3, the annotatedresults may be displayed as a part of rendering the display at step 350.

An illustrative display that may be rendered is depicted in FIG. 9. Thedisplay may generally include a user interface 900 with a search bar905, a results snapshot section 910, and/or a results display 915. Thesearch bar 905 may contain the various components described herein withrespect to FIG. 4.

The results snapshot section 910 may generally provide an overview ofthe search results divided into types of documents. For example, theresults snapshot section 910 shown in FIG. 9 divides the search resultsinto categories 912 such as cases; statutes and legislation;administrative codes and regulations; administrative materials;secondary materials; forms; briefs, pleadings, and motions; juryinstructions; jury verdicts and settlements; expert witness analysis;dockets; directories; news; legal news, scientific; company andfinancial; and web categories. The categories 912 are nonlimitingexamples. As such, other categories may be present without departingfrom the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the resultssnapshot section 910 may show a number of search hits 914 that arepresent in each of the categories 912. For example, the results snapshotsection 910 indicates that 1,530 search results have been categorized asforms. In some embodiments, the results snapshot section 910 may beinteractive such that a user can select particular results to be shown.For example, if a user only desires to see search results related tostatutes and legislation, the user may select (e.g., click) the“statutes and legislation” in the categories 912, which may cause theresults display 915 to only display search results from that particularcategory, as described in greater detail herein.

The results display 915 generally includes a listing of the results ofthe search completed pursuant to the query submitted by the user. Eachsearch result 920 may be displayed on one or more lines within theresults display 915. The content that is displayed for each searchresult 920 is not limited by this disclosure, and can be any type andamount of content, including a title, a citation, text regarding adetailed description, text regarding an overview, and/or the like. Inembodiments where legal databases are searched, each search result 920may include, for example, a case name 921 and/or a reporter citation922. Other information that may be included with each search result 920may include, for example, a jurisdiction 923, a date 924, and/or thelike. In some embodiments, each search result 920 may be expandable bythe user to reveal additional information. For example, a user mayselect (e.g., click) a link in the search result 920 to displayadditional text regarding the result (e.g., a full document or the like)and/or hover a mouse pointer over a portion of the search result 920 toview additional information. As such, the term “search result” may beused interchangably with the term “document” herein. That is, a searchresult 920 may be a document that was discovered as a result of a searchas described herein.

As a result of the steps described herein with respect to FIGS. 3, 6,and 8, each search result 920 may also include a hit pattern 925. Ingeneral, the hit pattern 925 provides a visualization to the user thatindicates the location of the various search terms of theprogrammatically determined most relevant parts of the document withinthe search result 920. As shown in FIG. 9, the hit pattern 925 mayinclude a breakdown of various sections of the search results. Forexample, if the search result 920 is a court opinion, the hit pattern925 may display the various sections of the court opinion, such as thesummary section, the headnotes (e.g., keywords) section, the opinionssection, and/or the various other sections. Such sections are merelyillustrative, and it should be understood that alternative, additional,or fewer sections may be used. Within one or more of the sections, thehit pattern 925 may also display one or more hashes 926. The hashes 926may generally correspond to the indicators that have been annotated inthe document, and indicate the location of a search term within eachsection, which allows a user to quickly and easily visualize where inthe document the search terms are appearing, as well as a clustering ofsearch terms. That is, a cluster of search terms may indicate an area ofthe document that is of greater interest to the user rather than asingle search term that is isolated from other terms.

As described herein, a number of units may be displayed up to aparticular threshold number. In order to distinguish each unit from eachother within the hit pattern 925, the hashes 926 may be color coded orotherwise contain a distinguishing feature according to the unit thateach hash 926 represents. As such, the user interface 900 may furtherinclude a selectable legend 930 that indicates which color correspondsto each unit. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the legend 930 mayindicate a first color for the term “sport”, a second color for the term“antitrust”, and a third color for the term “exemption”, which may betoggled on or off to display the corresponding highlights within thesearch result 920, as described in greater detail herein. As such, in afirst view that only displays certain information with regards to eachsearch result 920 (e.g., a high level snapshot of each case in aplurality of cases that were discovered as a result of a search),certain terms within each search result 920 are highlighted with thecorresponding color, which may also indicate where the terms appear withrespect to the document, whether the terms are clustered or spread out,and where the terms appear in relation to one another. In addition, whena unit contains a plurality of terms, each of the terms in that unitwill be coded with the same distinguishing feature (e.g., the terms“football”, “basketball”, and “sports” may all have the same colorhashes 926 and may be highlighted in the same manner within each searchresult 920).

In various embodiments, within the first view as depicted in FIG. 9, thehashes and highlighted terms may only indicate terms that are thehighest ranked in the document, a particular portion of the document, orthe like. That is, the “highest ranked” terms are terms that have beendetermined to be more likely to be relevant to a particular user'ssearch, and are annotated within the search result 920, as described ingreater detail herein (e.g., step 825 in FIG. 8). Thus, the highestranked terms may warrant being displayed to a user in a high level viewof a particular search result 920 that does not contain all of theinformation of the search result 920, as described hereinbelow. In someembodiments, a first highest ranked section may be even furtherdistinguished with a distinguishing feature 928. The first highestranked term may generally be a term from all of the highest ranked termsthat is most likely to be relevant to the user's search (i.e., having aneven greater ranking than the other highest ranked terms), which may bedetermined as described in greater detail herein. That is, the firsthighest ranked term is set apart from the remaining highest ranked termssuch that a user's attention is drawn to the first highest ranked term.The distinguishing feature 928 that is used for the purposes ofindicating the first highest ranked term is not limited by thisdisclosure and may be any distinguishing feature. For example, as shownin FIG. 9, the distinguishing feature 928 may be a star or the like.

In some embodiments, the hit pattern 925 that is displayed in FIG. 9 maynot indicate every single hit within the search result 920, particularlyin instances where the search result 920 contains a large number ofhits. Rather, the hit pattern 925 may only display a predeterminednumber of “most relevant” hits, such as hits that are determined to bemore likely to be of interest to a user relative to other hits, highestranked terms, and/or the like. In such embodiments, all of the hits maybe provided in the hit pattern 925 when a user selects the search result920 to view the entire search result 920, as described in greater detailherein.

While FIG. 9 relates generally to a color coded hit pattern 925 usingcolored hashes 926 to distinguish between units in a document, thepresent disclosure is not limited to such. For example, in someembodiments, the hit pattern 925 may utilize various different shadingsfor the hashes 926 to distinguish between units or may utilize othermeans of distinguishing between units without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, if a user desires to obtain additional informationregarding a document in a search result 920, but does not want to accessthe entire document and scroll through it to find the hits, the user mayselect (e.g., click or hover a mouse pointer over) one or more of thehashes 926 and/or clusters of hashes 926 (e.g., a cluster bound by a box927) to cause a overlay area 935 to appear on the results display 915.The overlay area 935 may show, for example, an excerpted version of thetext of the document with the search terms highlighted so that the usercan quickly determine whether the excerpted area is relevant to thesearch and move on to other sections or documents without having tonavigate back to a previous screen, re-run a search, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the box 927 may be movable relative to the hitpattern 925 such that a user can selectively move the box 927 to adesired location on the hit pattern 925. For example, the box 927 aslider type box that can be actuated by the user and moved along the hitpattern 925 such that it surrounds a particular area of interest withinthe hit pattern 925. That is, a user can slide the box 927 to aparticular area of interest, such as an area that contains a particularconcentration of hashes 926, an area that has a concentration of aparticular color/shading of hashes 926, an area that has a particulargrouping of different colors/shadings of hashes 926, an area indicatedwith the distinguishing feature 928, and/or the like. The contents ofthe overlay area 435 may be updated in real time such that the overlayarea 435 displays updated text of the search result 920 that correspondsto the various hashes 926 bound by the box 927. That is, the system isconfigured to allow the user to instantly select, via the box 927, oneor more particular areas of interest within the search result 920 basedon the clustering of the hashes 926 (or other factors) and instantly seethe corresponding text within the search result 920 without having toselect the search result 920 from all of the results in the resultsdisplay 915, wait for the full text of the search result 920 to bedisplayed, and then scroll down to a particular area of interest. Insome embodiments, the box 927 may only be operable (i.e., movable) whena particular document is fully opened (i.e., not a preview of a documentwithin a list of search results).

An initial location of the box 927 (i.e., a location of the box 927 thatis presented before a user moves it) may indicate, for example, anexcerpted portion of the search result 920 that has been automaticallydetermined to be a “best excerpt” based on a cluster of units, aparticular section of the search result 920, a section of the searchresult 920 that is well recognized in seminal and/or landmark cases, asection of the search result 920 that contains a discussion of publicpolicy, a section of the search result 920 that has a relevance thatexceeds a threshold for inclusion, and/or the like. In some embodiments,the portion of the text that is displayed within the overlay area 935may by visually differentiated from the rest of the text (e.g.,highlighting, bold text, etc.) or made salient (e.g., entities, phrases,document references, etc.) In embodiments where a cluster containing aplurality of different units is selected by the user, the distinguishingfeature (e.g., color) of the highlighting in the overlay area 935 maycorrespond to the color of the hash 926 used for a particular unit, asshown in FIG. 10. As such, the user may be able to quickly distinguishbetween terms in the overlay area 935 to obtain the information needed.

Referring again to FIG. 9, in some embodiments, the legend 930 maycontain check boxes or the like that would allow the user to select ordeselect certain units. For example, a user may deselect a particularunit from the legend 930 (e.g., by clicking on the unit), which maycause the hashes 926 in the hit pattern 925 corresponding to that unitto disappear. Similarly, the highlighting of the terms from the unitwould no longer be highlighted in the overlay area 935. However, itshould be understood that selecting or unselecting a particular unitfrom the legend 930 merely affects the display of the results and doesnot alter the actual search (i.e., the terms from the unit are stillpresent as search terms and the search results still incorporate theterms therein).

In some embodiments, the user may desire to see the entire documentinstead of particular excerpts from the document. In such embodiments,the user may select (e.g., click) the search result 920 (e.g., adocument title or the like), which may result in a whole document view1100, as shown in FIG. 11. In some embodiments, the user may click on,or otherwise select, the overlay area 935, which may open up the wholedocument view 1100 as shown in FIG. 11 to the section within thedocument containing the excerpted text in the overlay area 935. Similarto the results view shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the whole document view1100 of FIG. 11 also displays the hit pattern 925 with the hashes 926and highlights the search terms within a document display area 940 in acolor corresponding to the hashes 926. However, as describedhereinabove, in embodiments where the hit pattern 925 displayed in FIG.9 does not indicate all of the hits within the search result 920 (e.g.,because the search result 920 has a large number of hits), the viewprovided in FIG. 11 may update the hit pattern 925 to show all of thehits within the search results 920. As such, the user is provided witheven greater detail with respect to the hits within the search result920.

In some embodiments, the whole document view 1100 may further displayone or more hit cluster indicators 929 on or adjacent to the hit pattern925 that correspond to clusters of hashes 926 that indicate hits thatare more closely associated with particular search results than otherhits within the search result 920. As such, the hit cluster indicators929 may allow a user to find areas of the search result 920 that arelikely to more closely correspond to information that is being searched.As such, the user may move the box 927 so that it bounds an area ofhashes 926 that are indicated by the hit cluster indicators 929 and viewthe corresponding text within the search result 920. As a result, a usermay be able to more quickly locate areas of interest within the searchresult 920 without having to expend as much time and/or effort scrollingthrough the search result 920 to find such areas.

As a result of providing the user interface 900 described herein withrespect to FIGS. 9-11, the user may be able to better visualize why eachsearch result 920 was selected and/or ranked for displaying, visualizeportions of each search result 920 that are most (or more) pertinent tothe user based on the user's inputted search terms, visualize why oneparticular search result may be ranked higher on the list of resultsthan another particular search result, visualize how many excerptsexceeded a threshold, and/or visualize how many terms are in an excerpt(i.e., a higher number of terms results in a higher ranking). This maybe especially possible in instances where the reasoning for rankingwould not otherwise be noticeable to the user. In addition, the userinterface 900 indicates the differences in the content of a particularsearch result 920 versus how a particular user may actually use thecontent in his/her research.

It should be understood that the user interface 900 described withrespect to FIGS. 9-11 is merely illustrative, and other user interfacesthat utilize the information obtained from the steps described herein toprovide ordered search results to a user are contemplated and possible.For example, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 12, an alternativeuser interface 1200 may include an alternative hit pattern section 1225for each of the one or more search results 1220. More particularly, thealternative hit pattern section 1225 may be a bar graph indicating thetotal number of hits in each of the one or more search results 1220 foreach unit, which may also be referred to as a “sparkline” visualization.That is, a first bar 1250 may indicate the total number of hits for afirst unit, a second bar 1255 may indicate the total number of hits fora second unit, and a third bar 1260 may indicate the total number ofhits for a third unit. The larger the bar (i.e., the taller in length ofthe bar), the greater number of hits that are present in the particularsearch results. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the search result“J.S. v. Blue Mt. Sch. Dist.” indicates an alternative hit patternsection 1225 whereby the second bar 1255 has a greater amount of hitsthan the first bar 1250 and the third bar 1260. As indicated by thelegend 1230, the second bar 1255 corresponds to the search term“school”. As such, a user, upon viewing the alternative hit patternsection 1225, may recognize that the search result “J.S. v. Blue Mt.Sch. Dist.” uses the term “school” often. In some embodiments, the bars1250, 1255, 1260 may be sized according to their respectiveproportionality. That is, if a search result uses the term “school”twice as often as the term “internet”, then the second bar 1255(corresponding to the term “school”) may be twice as tall as the thirdbar 1260 (corresponding to the term “internet”). In some embodiments,the bars 1250, 1255, 1260 may relate to hits for the entire document,hits in a particular section or plurality of sections, and/or the like.

Referring also to FIG. 13, in some embodiments, the alternative userinterface 1200 may provide the user with an ability to reorder thesearch results 1220 by indicating in alternative hit pattern section1225 which terms have a greater interest. That is, if a user desires tosee the search results 1220 that contain the most mentions of the term“school” at the top of the results, the user may select a correspondingone of the reorder buttons 1265 (e.g., the center one of the reorderbuttons 1265), which will reorder the search results 1220 accordingly.Similarly, if the user desires to reorder the search results to indicatewhich search results include the most mentions of the term “school” andthe term “internet” at the top of the results, the user may select thecorresponding two of the reorder buttons 1265, which will reorder thesearch results 1220 accordingly. It should be understood that thereorder buttons 1265 may also be used to reorder the search results 1220to show a least amount of hits at the top of the results and may also beused to reorder the search results 1220 to show the results having themost evenly distributed amount of the terms (e.g., the various termsappear in substantially equal amounts with respect to each other) at thetop of the results. In some embodiments, the reorder buttons 1265 mayalso be used to restore a default or original relevance ranking (i.e.,an initial relevance ranking that was initially provided to the user).

Referring now to FIG. 14, in some embodiments, the alternative userinterface 1200 may present a pop-up display 1270 when activated by auser. The pop-up display 1270 may be activated, for example, when a userhovers over a particular area of the alternative user interface 1200,such as one of the search results 1220. Other means of activating thepop-up display 1270 are contemplated and possible. The pop-up display1270 may generally present additional information regarding theparticular one of the search results 1220 without requiring a user tofully open the document to view its contents. For example, as shown inFIG. 14, the pop-up display 1270 may provide information relating to anoverview section of a document presented in the search results 1220. Insome embodiments, various terms may be highlighted in the text of thepop-up display 1270.

As an alternative to the pop-up display 1270, in some embodiments, thealternative user interface 1200 may expand to display a detailed resultssection 1275, as shown in FIG. 15. The detailed results section 1275 maybe similar to the pop-up display 1270 (FIG. 14) and/or the overlay area935 (FIG. 9). That is, the detailed results section 1275 may provideadditional information regarding a particular one of the search results1220 without requiring a user to fully open the document to view itscontents. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, the detailed results section1275 may provide one or more selected portions of the text of a documentfrom the search results 1220, such as, for example, portions containingsearch terms, which may be highlighted, as described in greater detailherein. In addition, a user may select one of the bars 1250, 1255, 1260to cause the detailed results section 1275 to display text of thedocument that includes keywords corresponding to the selected one of thebars 1250, 1255, 1260. For example, if a user selects the third bar1260, which corresponds to the search term “internet”, the detailedresults section 1275 may display a portion of the text that includes theterm “internet” therein. In addition, the term “internet” may behighlighted within the displayed text.

In some embodiments, the alternative user interface 1200 may provide anavigable expanded detailed results section 1275, as shown in FIG. 16.More specifically, the bars 1250, 1255, 1260 may each expand into aplurality of bars when the detailed results section 1275 is expanded,thereby allowing a user to select one or more of the plurality ofexpanded bars 1280, 1285, 1290 to display various portions of the textof the document in the detailed results section 1275. Such embodimentsmay allow a user to more efficiently inspect documents from the searchlist by navigating between excerpts and/or various locations in thedocument, but still without having to open the entire document to viewits contents. However, it should be understood that such an userinterface 1200 is merely illustrative, and other means providing a userwith interactions with visual elements in order to show correspondingcontent is within the scope of the present disclosure.

The plurality of expanded bars 1280, 1285, 1290 is merely illustrativeand not limited by this disclosure. As such, other means of allowing auser to visualize and navigate between portions of the text within theexpanded detailed results section 1275 are contemplated and possible.For example, in some embodiments, one or more hashes appearing inclusters (similar to that as described above with respect to FIGS. 9-11)may be used. In addition, the alternative user interface 1200 may conveyother types of information to the user without requiring the user tonavigate into the document, including volume of hits, proportion ofhits, location of hits, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the alternative user interface 1200 may beconfigurable by a user to only display results based on the closeness ofthe search terms with respect to each other, as depicted in FIG. 17.Such embodiments may ensure that documents having clusters of unitsclose to one another within the document are displayed higher in thesearch results 1220 than documents having a spread out arrangement ofunits within the document. Alternatively, the documents having a spreadout arrangement may be omitted entirely. In some embodiments, the userinterface 1200 may allow a user to control the sensitivity of theclustering (e.g., indicating how “spread out” a cluster may be withinthe text of a document). In a nonlimiting example, a user may adjust thesensitivity of the clustering by indicating that 5 hits within 100 wordsof text is a minimum threshold for a cluster. In another nonlimitingexample, a user may adjust the sensitivity of the clustering byindicating that 3 hits within a paragraph is a minimum threshold for acluster. In some embodiments, adjusting the sensitivity may be completedby the user by accessing a protoype variable controller popup window1295 and adjusting a slider 1297. For example, moving the slider 1297 tothe left may “loosen” the threshold and show clusters that are morespread out within the text. Similarly, moving the slider 1297 to theright might “tighten” the threshold and show clusters of hits that arecloser together. It should be understood that such a proto variablecontroller popup window 1295 is merely illustrative and other means ofadjusting the sensitivity are contemplated and possible. Such a featuremay manifest as a user control setting or as a default display setting.

In some embodiments, the various user interfaces described herein mayallow a user to determine an alternative sort order that is independentfrom a sort order automatically generated by any search enginealgorithm, which may result in the discovery of a more customized anduseful search ranking to the user that would not necessarily bepredicted by a search algorithm. Thus, the customizability of thevisualization to a particular user's needs allows for achecks-and-balances approach that is used in conjunction with a searchengine and/or search algorithm. As such, a balance may be struck betweensearch results that are determined by rankings (e.g., the processesdescribed herein) versus search results that are determined by aspecific metric (e.g., typical search engine processes).

It should be understood that the various user interfaces are merelyillustrative. As such, any combination of the various features that aredescribed with respect to FIGS. 9-17, as well as features notspecifically described herein, are contemplated and possible withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

It should now be understood that the systems and methods describedherein allow a user to submit a search query, and at substantially thesame time as the search is conducted, the search terms are grouped intounits and the number of units is reduced below a threshold (ifnecessary). Such a grouping includes determining which terms containsimilarities to group into a unit for the purposes of displaying andpresenting to the user. Such a reduction includes determining whichunits are the most likely to be useful by a user in determiningdocuments to review. The grouping and reducing is generally completed insubstantially the same amount of time as the search such that a userdoes not experience a delay in conducting a search. Once the search, thegrouping, and the reducing are completed, a display is rendered to theuser. The display allows the user to visualize hit patterns in thesearch results at both a document level and a collection level byembedding miniature charts to transcend the effectiveness of atraditional results list. As such, the user is able to more quickly andefficiently determine which documents from a results list are relevantand/or of interest without having to view the entirety of the document.

While particular embodiments have been illustrated and described herein,it should be understood that various other changes and modifications maybe made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimedsubject matter. Moreover, although various aspects of the claimedsubject matter have been described herein, such aspects need not beutilized in combination. It is therefore intended that the appendedclaims cover all such changes and modifications that are within thescope of the claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of displaying a visualizable resultslist, the method comprising: receiving, by a processing device, a searchquery, wherein the search query comprises a plurality of search terms;grouping, by the processing device, the plurality of search terms into aplurality of units, wherein each of the plurality of units comprises arelated one or more of the plurality of search terms; accessing, by theprocessing device, metadata for each document in a plurality of searchresults that corresponds to the search query; annotating, by theprocessing device, one or more highest ranked locations in each documentwith a first indicator for each of the one or more highest ranked searchterms in a first unit of the plurality of units and a second indicatorfor each of the one or more search terms in a second unit of theplurality of units based on the metadata, wherein the highest rankedsearch terms in the first unit are terms that have been determined bythe processing device to be more likely to be relevant to the searchquery relative to other terms; and displaying, by the processing device,a visualizable results list comprising: the plurality of search results,a corresponding hit pattern for each document in the plurality of searchresults, wherein the hit pattern for each search result comprises: oneor more sections of the document, a first one or more hashescorresponding to each first indicator, a second one or more hashescorresponding to each second indicator, the first one or more hashes andthe second one or more hashes positioned within the hit pattern in oneor more locations that correspond to the one or more locations of thesearch terms in the document, the second one or more hashes are visuallydistinguishable from the first one or more hashes, a box that surroundsat least one of the first one or more hashes and the second one or morehashes and is movable along a length of the hit pattern such that thebox can be moved to a particular location on the hit pattern, and anoverlay area positioned underneath the hit pattern, the overlay areadisplaying text from the document that corresponds to a positioning ofthe box and highlighting the search terms within the displayed text suchthat a portion of the document corresponding to the particular locationindicated by the box on the hit pattern is viewable within the overlayarea with the search terms highlighted.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein annotating the one or more locations with the first indicatorand the second indicator comprises annotating one or more highest rankedlocations with the second indicator for each of one or more highestranked search terms in the second unit.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the hit pattern displays, via the first one or more hashes andthe second one or more hashes, the highest ranked search terms in thefirst unit and the second unit.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst one or more hashes are distinguishable from the second one or morehashes.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the text contains annotationsthat correspond to the at least one of the first one or more hashes andthe second one or more hashes surrounded by the box.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the box is further movable relative to the hit patternto surround a second area of at least one of the first one or morehashes and the second one or more hashes and the overlay area displaysupdated text from the document that corresponds to the second areasurrounded by the box.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the hit patternfurther comprises one or more hit cluster indicators that correspond toa first one or more clusters of the first one or more hashes and thesecond one or more hashes that are more closely associated with theplurality of search terms relative to a second one or more clusters ofthe first one or more hashes and the second one or more hashes.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: annotating, by the processingdevice, one or more locations in each document with a third indicatorfor each of the one or more search terms in a third unit of theplurality of units based on the metadata.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the hit pattern comprises a third one or more hashescorresponding to each third indicator, the third one or more hashespositioned within the hit pattern in one or more locations thatcorrespond to the one or more locations of the search terms in eachdocument.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the terms that have beendetermined to be more likely to be relevant to the search query relativeto the other terms is based on at least one of whether the terms areassociated with terms having semantic similarities, whether the termspertain to a related legal topic, whether the terms pertain to a relateddocument corpus, and whether the terms pertain to related user searches.11. A system for displaying a visualizable results list, the systemcomprising: a processing device; and a non-transitory,processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processingdevice, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage mediumcomprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed,cause the processing device to: receive a search query, wherein thesearch query comprises a plurality of search terms, group the pluralityof search terms into a plurality of units, wherein each of the pluralityof units comprises a related one or more of the plurality of searchterms, access metadata for each document in a plurality of searchresults that corresponds to the search query, annotate one or morehighest ranked locations in each document with a first indicator foreach of the one or more highest ranked search terms in a first unit ofthe plurality of units and a second indicator for each of the one ormore search terms in a second unit of the plurality of units based onthe metadata, wherein the highest ranked search terms in the first unithave been determined by the processing device to be more likely to berelevant to the search query relative to other terms, and display avisualizable results list comprising: the plurality of search results, acorresponding hit pattern for each document in the plurality of searchresults, wherein the hit pattern for each search result comprises: oneor more sections of the document, a first one or more hashescorresponding to each first indicator, and a second one or more hashescorresponding to each second indicator, the first one or more hashes andthe second one or more hashes positioned within the hit pattern in oneor more locations that correspond to the one or more locations of thesearch terms in the document, the second one or more hashes are visuallydistinguishable from the first one or more hashes, a box that surroundsat least one of the first one or more hashes and the second one or morehashes and is movable along a length of the hit pattern such that thebox can be moved to a particular location on the hit pattern, and anoverlay area positioned underneath the hit pattern, the overlay areadisplaying text from the document that corresponds to a positioning ofthe box and highlighting the search terms within the displayed text suchthat a portion of the document corresponding to the particular locationindicated by the box on the hit pattern is viewable within the overlayarea with the search terms highlighted.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed,cause the processing device to annotate the one or more locations withthe first indicator and the second indicator further cause theprocessing device to: annotate one or more highest ranked locations withthe second indicator for each of one or more highest ranked search termsin the second unit.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the hit patterndisplays, via the first one or more hashes and the second one or morehashes, the highest ranked search terms in the first unit and the secondunit.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first one or more hashesare distinguishable from the second one or more hashes.
 15. The systemof claim 11, wherein the text contains annotations that correspond tothe at least one of the first one or more hashes and the second one ormore hashes surrounded by the box.
 16. The system of claim 11, whereinthe box is further movable relative to the hit pattern to surround asecond area of at least one of the first one or more hashes and thesecond one or more hashes and the overlay area displays updated textfrom the document that corresponds to the second area surrounded by thebox.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the hit pattern furthercomprises one or more hit cluster indicators that correspond to a firstone or more clusters of the first one or more hashes and the second oneor more hashes that are more closely associated with the plurality ofsearch terms relative to a second one or more clusters of the first oneor more hashes and the second one or more hashes.
 18. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the non-transitory, processor readable storage mediumfurther comprises one or more programming instructions that, whenexecuted cause the processing device to: annotate one or more locationsin each document with a third indicator for each of the one or moresearch terms in a third unit of the plurality of units based on themetadata, wherein the hit pattern comprises a third one or more hashescorresponding to each third indicator, the third one or more hashespositioned within the hit pattern in one or more locations thatcorrespond to the one or more locations of the search terms in eachdocument.
 19. A non-transitory storage medium comprising program codefor displaying a visualizable results list, the computer program code,when executed, causing a processing device to: receive a search query,wherein the search query comprises a plurality of search terms, groupthe plurality of search terms into a plurality of units, wherein each ofthe plurality of units comprises a related one or more of the pluralityof search terms, access metadata for each document in a plurality ofsearch results that corresponds to the search query, annotate one ormore highest ranked locations in each document with a first indicatorfor each of the one or more highest ranked search terms in a first unitof the plurality of units and a second indicator for each of the one ormore search terms in a second unit of the plurality of units based onthe metadata, wherein the highest ranked search terms in the first unithave been determined by the processing device to be more likely to berelevant to the search query relative to other terms, and display avisualizable results list comprising: the plurality of search results, acorresponding hit pattern for each document in the plurality of searchresults, wherein the hit pattern for each search result comprises: oneor more sections of the document, a first one or more hashescorresponding to each first indicator, and a second one or more hashescorresponding to each second indicator, the first one or more hashes andthe second one or more hashes positioned within the hit pattern in oneor more locations that correspond to the one or more locations of thesearch terms in the document, the second one or more hashes are visuallydistinguishable from the first one or more hashes, a box that surroundsat least one of the first one or more hashes and the second one or morehashes and is movable along a length of the hit pattern such that thebox can be moved to a particular location on the hit pattern, and anoverlay area positioned underneath the hit pattern, the overlay areadisplaying text from the document that corresponds to a positioning ofthe box and highlighting the search terms within the displayed text suchthat a portion of the document corresponding to the particular locationindicated by the box on the hit pattern is viewable within the overlayarea with the search terms highlighted.
 20. The non-transitory storagemedium of claim 19, wherein the hit pattern displays, via the first oneor more hashes and the second one or more hashes, the highest rankedsearch terms in the first unit and the second unit.